Other Rulesets with Mongoose Conan setting.

O

OggSmash

Mongoose
I was curious how many people run a Conan game using the setting, but different rulesets. I am starting a GURPS campaign and am a bit curious as to how the game will compare to the OGL version. I have only played a bit of the OGL, and while I appreciated the Changes from D20 to capture the Conan flavor, I think some aspects of GURPS might be able to do as well or maybe better.

I am also curious if anyone has run a Conan unisystem game. The magic seems like it would be a bit harder to convert than GURPS (powers makes Conan (ogl) magic not so hard to emulate, but I have never actually run a Unisytem game. The system does seem to have deadly combat, and I am wondering if its too deadly for Conanesque adventures.

Any feedback on the two systems above I appreciate, and any experience with any other system I would like to hear too. Personally I just dont enjoy D20 or any of the OGL variants all that much, surely I am not all alone on that note.
 
Conan is a perfect fit for Savage Worlds. No modifications needed, just the core book and your Conan stuff... you're ready to play. The SW system is perfect for Conan. They also have The Savage World of Solomon Kane coming out this year.

The rules are quite simplfied compared to D20, but once you know them and are aware of all the subtle little things that make it great, you'll be hard pressed to go back. It's definately the fastest system I've ever played. Combats that could take an entire night or more in D20 or Gurps are done in hours or less with Savage Worlds.

That being said, I'm going to run my Conan game with the new 2nd Edition rules when they come out in August. Why? I've been converting things from D20 to Savage Worlds alot lately... for once I just want to open the book and play rather than come up with conversions for X,Y and Z.

Good luck with your game! You can probably still find some of the old Gurps Conan books on Ebay. The hardest to find is usually Gurps Conan itself. The supplements generally are easier to find.
 
I've never played Conan with anything other than d20, but I can concur that Savage Worlds seems like a very good fit. And I'm definitely getting that Solomon Kane book as soon as it hits the shelves.
 
Im afraid I had a different experience with Savage Worlds. It sounded like a great system and I used it for a "Tour of Darkness" campaign for about 6 months. It was definitely Fast, Furious and Fun as advertised but also extremely simplistic and essentially laid every bit of detail and sometimes resolution of events in the lap of the GM. If felt as though I was making a lot of stuff up while playing instead of allowing the players actions and abilities to determine outcomes. Its a cool system for a certain type of game, which Tour of Darkness sort of fit pretty well but I think it would be a disaster for a serious Conan game.
 
Thanks for the savage worlds advice. I have the Savage worlds Ruleset. It looked like a decent fit, but was my third choice. The one thing I like about GURPS and Uni was that hitting in specific locations can cause ALOT of damage and its possible to one shot a power house if you get lucky.

That last feature was something I really like about Conan OGL, and also gave me pause to use Savage worlds. I have the GURPS Conan book, it not too bad to get ideas from, but I also have the Conan OGL, Scrolls of Skelos, Beyond Thunder River, Road of Kings and the Aquilonia book.

I think the Mongoose books are great for background and adventure ideas, I just dont like D20 (with Conan they have come as close as possible to getting me to like it though.)

I have a savage worlds question though, and you might be able to save me some book time, how would you model the dark nature of sorcery in Conan. The Savage worlds magic seemed pretty generic and to favor the artillery mage of high fantasy.
 
I'm currently tinkering with the fundamentals of a Conan/Hyboria game (Not sure if it'll ever get to a level where it is usable). It looks more or less like this:

There are three stats: Prowess, Cunning and Discipline. These can be used straight up, or together with a talent (Such as Close Combat, Toughness or different Combat Techniques). Lastly there are the Knowledges, which are separate from the stats and talents and reflect academical and magical learning. All these scores are used with a dieroll (2d6) to beat a difficulty. Combat rolls are opposed rolls. Toughness is used to determine how badly injured those hit get. You can get injured through both physical and mental injuries. (madness and nervousness)

There are three classes: Barbarian, Outlaw and Citizen. Each class gains levels through different criteria: the Barbarian through overcoming enemies and challanges and winning renown, the outlaw through manipulatin and dominating pple and building a network of influence, the Citizen through fulfilling his duty and reaching higher posts. Not quite sure what I'll let levels signify, but its certainly not gonna drive up hit points. might let it give the PC points to buy stats for though.

That is, briefly, my concept.
 
Hyborian Age campaign with 1st edition AD&D with the Barbarian class from Unearthed Arcana (pp. 18-21): in the works. Magic system will HAVE to be retooled. (duh!) :D The 'Goose books' flavour portions are revved up and ready to go for action without any refitting, IMHO. 8)

One line from UA says: "Barbarians in general detest magic and those who use it." I'm not sure if detest is quite the right word, though. I would have said "Barbarians are highly suspicious of - if not unreservedly distrustful of - sorcery and those who employ it."
 
I think HARN might work fine with Conan. It is a very brutal and realistic system, though, so it only fits for people who enjoy having festering wounds and their horses dying of diarrhea after giving them wrong kind of food.
 
Majestic7 said:
...it only fits for people who enjoy having festering wounds and their horses dying of diarrhea...
Click to expand...
You mean "people who enjoy having their characters get festering wounds"... right? :shock:
 
Trodax said:
Majestic7 said:
...it only fits for people who enjoy having festering wounds and their horses dying of diarrhea...
Click to expand...
You mean "people who enjoy having their characters get festering wounds"... right? :shock:
Click to expand...

Haha, that depends entirely on how HC you are playing it.
 
Currently working on a Runequest game, using Magic from Lankhmar settings. It really works on its own, just using sorcery rules, and expanded time rules for casting spells.

No real work to convert anything...
 
GURPs Conan was what our group enjoyed for 3 years before Mongoose came out with this version. Gurps has a huge amount of world books to use as a culture base. And since SJ Games has changed their core system E-Bay is a great place to pick them up for a steal. My problem was Magic users wanting D&D characters, but thats an issue in these forums too.
 
Seems I'm not alone to find the D20 system awkward, superheavy and stereotypical.
I started my campaign using the Mongoose OGL system but we rapidly shifted to the old Chaosium BRP system, using the Elric/Stormbringer 5th ed.
rules with a few modifications that can be found here:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=22669&highlight=

Then Mongoose released their own version of the BRP with Runequest and I considered changing system again but didn't do it. The rules are good anyway and fit nicely to the Hyborian World with a few changes.

Another solution would be the old TSR Conan RPG. The rules were pretty straightfoward, full of good ideas but the game has an unfinished feel. You can find the rules online if you can' t get the box:

http://www.midcoast.com/~ricekrwc/zefrs/
 
After taking a few months off from Savage Worlds and now holding Conan 2nd Ed in my hands... I may go back on my original statement and convert to SW afterall.

One thing I hate is hit points. From a GM's point of view: you have a man pointing a crossbow at a character, ordering the character to surrender. Now, logically, a character should wish to avoid being shot. Getting captured happens to Conan alot, so why not the game?

From the Player point of view: The PC is 10th level and knows a crossbow bolt won't kill him so he charges rather than risk capture.

Savage Worlds, it wouldn't matter if the character was Novice rank or Legendary... they'd be wise to surrender.

That was brought up on the SW forums a few days ago and I've been mulling it over ever since. I guess the other thing is prep time. I can make up a SW character on the fly while GMing. With D20, that's not so easy and gets harder as you go up in level.

I'm wanting to use SW, but I'll leave it to a vote among my players.
 
I expect to try running Conan with Reign before the end of this year.

I'll post some feedback after the first session.

W.
 
bloodshadows said:
After taking a few months off from Savage Worlds and now holding Conan 2nd Ed in my hands... I may go back on my original statement and convert to SW afterall.
Click to expand...

How does Savage World do magic? I have Pirates of the Spanish Main, but there is no magic in the system. I was thinking about picking up the main book and Solomon, but I am curious how spells are handled? Skills?
 
shouit said:
How does Savage World do magic? I have Pirates of the Spanish Main, but there is no magic in the system. I was thinking about picking up the main book and Solomon, but I am curious how spells are handled? Skills?
Click to expand...

I really like how the Savage Worlds system (and the Solomon Kane book) handles things. Solomon Kane handles magic differently than the core Savage Worlds rules, which is a nice touch. The Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane is a complete system, so you don't have to have the main book to run games. They kept the magic subtle, powerful and mysterious.
 
shouit said:
How does Savage World do magic? I have Pirates of the Spanish Main, but there is no magic in the system. I was thinking about picking up the main book and Solomon, but I am curious how spells are handled? Skills?
Click to expand...
In basic Savage Worlds you have a number of spells you know, a bunch of power point which you spend to cast these spells, and a skill which you roll to cast successfully (Spellcasting). Nothing extraordinarily different there.

The spells are few and very broad and generic. This is deliberate, as you are then expected to modify them to suit your spellcasting style (these modifications are called Trappings). So, for example, there are basically only three damage-dealing spells; Bolt (ranged damage against a single target), Blast (area effect) and Burst (a cone-shaped area emanating from you). These could be modified to be made up by fire, divine wrath, or black, cthulhoid tendrils, depending on what kind of spellcaster you are. The advantage of the system is of course that it is much, much easier for a GM to remember the rules when you only have three spells instead of magic missile, fireball, lightning bolt, firestrike, chain lightning, etc. etc.

Don't know how this differs from Solomon Kane, but I'm dying to find out (IOW, I'm green of envy at Vincent who seems to have a copy already before it's been released).
 
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